I’m crunching on a bunch of work stuff today, but I wanted to point out this official Google blog post briefly:

Since we closed the acquisition of DoubleClick on March 11, we’ve been immersed in integration planning for each of our products and business units. Recently we completed this process for the DoubleClick Performics businesses, and have decided to split them into two separately-run business units: Affiliate Marketing and Search Marketing.
It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party.

I have nothing but the highest respect for the people that do search marketing for Performics, but I think this is the best decision. People hold Google to a unbelievably high standard, and I think it’s important that we try very hard to avoid any conflict of interest — or even the appearance of conflict of interest — in our business. Many people I respect have wanted Google to take this step and I think it’s the right call.
(As always, remember that this is my personal blog and personal opinions.)


Google to spin off search marketing side of Performics - Read More...